excerpt from COLORS OF MY WORLD (see Aug 31, 2010)''
In the early 60s, sitting in my Sunday school class in church, we listened as the title was read - BLACK LIKE ME, by John Howard Griffin. This man really wanted to know and he cared enough to do something! Our class briefly reviewed the premise of the book. His journey into the unknown, disguised by medical treatment to change his skin color so as to get a true, unposed view of what it was like to be a black man in the South. He boarded a bus from the north and got off the bus in a southern town, without a job and knowing no one. This book chronicles his daily struggles, fears and humiliations as he tries to make his way in a world ready to despise and reject him because his skin was now dark. "It traces the changes that occur to heart and body and intelligence when a so-called first class citizen is cast on the junk heap of second-class ciutizenship."..."Whites were saying the right things, showing deep concern over injustices...but never really consulting with black people as equals. The vast difference between what this country was saying and apparently believing, and what the black man was experiencing was embittering."
My stomach wrenched, my teeth clenched, my hands grew stiff from making a fist...as I realized how blind, how unnoticing, how nonchalant my life had been up until then. Looking around in the classroom, I saw uneasiness, irritation, curiousity and a few startled expressions. After this one brief hour of awareness, I never again observed any pursuit of this subject in my church. This was like a vision that was abruptly closed, with no action after the reaction. Why didn't we do something?...But not for me. I felt so churned up ...Any questions or comments I made only brought an uneasy change of subject or the response "That's really too bad but it's changing, right? I was admonished with "Don't make waves" or "What can you do?"
I have been trying to answer that question. So have others, it has changed but not enough yet.
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